US1207537A

US1207537A - Method for regulating temperatures.

Info

Publication number: US1207537A
Application number: US1329715A
Authority: US
Inventors: Harry E Gilbert
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1915-03-09
Filing date: 1915-03-09
Publication date: 1916-12-05
Anticipated expiration: 1933-12-05

Description

H. E. GILBERT.

METHOD FOR REGULATING TEMPERATURES.

APPLlCATlON FILED MAR. 9. 3915.

HQ 1 9 1 5 6 6 D d 6 t n 6 t a P INVENTORY METHOD FOR BEGULATING TEMPERATURES.

meanest.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 5, 119198.

Application filed March 9, 1915. Serial No. 13,297.

1/ '0 all whom 2'25 may concern:

Be it known that T, HARRY E. GILBERT, a citizen of the United States, and resident, of Conshohocken, county of Montgomery, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Methods for Regulating Temperatures, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a satisfactory means of controlling furnaces and other apparatus requiring relatively high temperatures, whereby a uniformity in the temperature may be maintained under control of thermostatically operated means, which in turn regulates the temperature pro duced by the heating medium employed in maintaining the heat. v More particularly my invention has for an object the collection of a plurality of currents of the heated fluids, whether of air, gases or vapors from different places in an unitary space and providing thereby an average mixture which will approximately represent the result of the average temperature of the furnaces, etc., said average mixture being employed to actuate the thermostatic member for controlling the supply of gas or other fuel with which the apparatus is heated.

With the above and other objects in view, the nature of which will be more fully understood from the description hereinafter, the invention consists in the novelconstruction of means for regulating temperatures as hereinafter more fully described and defined in the claims.

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a sectional plan view illustrating an oven having my improved apparatus applied thereto; Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the furnace, illustrating a modified form of my improved apparatus; and Fig. 3 is an elevation illustrating my improved apparatus as applied to steam boilers.

First referring to the construction illustrated in Fig. 1; this is intended to represent an oven such as an oven suitable for japanning or any other drying or baking operation, and the shape and general construction may be of any of those in common use. 2 represents the unitary heating space between the outer walls and the inner chamber, and the heat to this space is provided by the gas burner 3 which ordinarily is located below the compartment and at the bottom of the oven. Gas is supplied to this burner 3 within the oven structure, and they all deliver into the same common flue or passage 7 so that the thermostatic member 9 is affected by the average heat of the mixture. In this manner the operation-of the valve 5 by the thermostatic member 9 will be in accurate accord with the requirements of the heating of the oven, and the temperature thereof will be maintained more constant and accurate than is possible'where the thermostatic member is not operated by an average mixture.

The thermostatic member 9 and the valve device 5 employed in connection therewith may be of any suitable type such as is illustrated in my application Serial No. 789,025, filed September 10, 1913, or of the type illustrated in Patent No. 986,760, dated March 14:, 1911, to which reference is made by way of example. In these thermostatically con trolled valves provision is made by an adjusting screw 20 to adjust the valve piece independently of its operation under the thermostatic control so that the supply of gas may be first regulated to the necessities of the case, and thereafter the control may be thermostatically influenced.

In the illustration shown in Fig. 2, 2 represents any suitable furnace which may be supplied with fuel burners at 3, these latter being supplied with fuel by a pipe 4: con

trolled by the valve device as in the case of Fig. 1. In this case samples of the furnace gases in the unitary spaces are collected by a plurality of fines 8 which deliver said gases as an average mixture into the bottom ofa main flue or passage 7* which may have outlets at the top as at 10 for permitting a relatively slow escape of the gases to the atmosphere. In this way the radiant heat of the heated mixture acts upon the thermostatic member, the size of the aperture 10 being a suflicient relief to retard the flow through the casing. The thermostatic member 9 for operating the valve 5 is extended down into the casing or passage 7 so that it is affected by the temperature of the conditions of the mixture of gases from the different parts of the furnace with the passage 7. It is manifest that any variations in the temperature conditions of the furnace at any one or more places will change the temperature of the average mixture of gases and in this manner cause the thermostatic member to actuate the valve5 to vary the fuel supplied to the furnace and thereby automatically raise or lower its temperature in accordance with the requirements. In this particular illustration of my improvements, the casing 7 is provided with an opening 11 at or near the lower portion of the casing 7*, so that it is .ata lower level than the thermostatic member 9, and said opening is controlled by a valve 11 manually operated so that the size of the opening may be ad justed to divert the desired proportion of the mixture through the opening and thereby adjust the operation of the apparatus to suit given requirements. By varying the size of the opening 11*, the speed of the flow around the thermostatic member 9 may be controlled, the larger the opening the slower the flow about said member, and vice versa; and this adjustment of the valve 11 varies the effectiveness of the temperature of the current of mixture upon the thermostatic member and governs the degree of temperature of the furnace which is to be maintained. The adjustment of the valve 11 in this case will take the place of the adjustment of the valve 20 in the case of the a pparatus shown in Fig. 1, but as illustrated it may be employed in addition to such adjustment as it provides a convenient means of changing the normal temperature to be maintained in the furnace when other conditions necessitate. However, in this apparatus once the predetermined temperature is determined, thereafter the apparatus operates automatically to maintain the constancy of said temperature. The means shown by way of example for operating thevalve 11 comprise a pivoted lever 12 to operate the valve, a. link 14 connecting the lever with a crank 13, a transmission gear 15 leading to apointer 16 adapted to be moved over a dial 17, and a chain mechanism 18 for operating the pointer, and through the other connec tionsv the rank 13. In this Way the operator may readily adjust the valve 11 to insure the normal temperature desired. Any other suitable means may be employed for adj usting the valve 11. v

In the construction shown in Fig. 3, 2 represents the-steam drum of a boiler, the

heat of Whichis supplied by fuel from the pipe 4 controlled by the valve 5. In this construction steam is led from the steam drum 2 by'the plurality of pipes 8 which which the steam pipe 7 extends and leads to the steam main 19. The thermostatic member 9 is arranged within the steanrpipe 7 and is adapted to operate the control valve 5 as in the other cases. In this instance the average temperature of the steam is made up from the steam supplied from different parts of the steam generating apparatus, and consequently any variations in temperature from one part of the apparatus relatively to temperatures in other parts will not be affected by abnormal irregularities in contrd'l; In this manner the steam which is leaving the generating plant, being an average mixture of said plant, will be effective in operating the thermostat to maintain the constant temperature required for the steam at any given pressure: While the pipes 8 are indicated as leading from different parts of the same drum 2, it is manifest that they may lead from different boilers of a battery constituting the generating plant, if so desired, as I do not limit myself in any manner to the details of the boiler structure. In this illustration I have indicated the adjusting wheel 20 of the valve as adapted to be operated by a chain 21 extending about a sprocket wheel 22, to which a pointer 23 is attached, the pointer being moved over the dial 2% by the chain 25. In this manner the valve 5 may be adjusted by the engineer in charge, and the extent of the adjustment may-be indicated, but such adjustments are only made when it is desired to arrange for a predetermined normal temperature of the apparatus; thereafter the regulation is accomplished automatically by the thermostatic member.

From the foregoing examples of the employment of my improved method and means for insuring control of the tempera ture of the furnace to maintain a substantially constant temperature, it will be manifest that no matter how the temperature may vary at different places about the oven casing or the furnace compartment, producing an average mixture of the various currents of heated air or gas and acting upon the thermostatic control devices by the temperature of said mixture will insure a more positive and accurate maintenance of the constant temperature predetermined upon and desired. By my improvements there will be less' liability of abnormal fluctuations in the temperature acting upon the thermostat than results where the thermostat is simply located in'some one place in the oven or receives products of combus-, tion from some particular part of the fur nace, and because of this there will be less irregularity in the control of the gas or fuel which'is supplied to the furnace, and considerable economy as well as constancy in temperature will result. In the case of boilers or where batteries of boilers are employed in large steam installations, and where the temperature conditions are controlled automatically, it is apparent that by collecting samples of the steam from various sources in the boiler or battery of boilers and making the mixture of said steam act upon the thermostat, the regulation of the heating means of the boiler may be maintained to produce a more constant supply of steam at a predetermined pressure as the temperature is dependent upon the pressure.

I have described my invention with reference to means to control a fluid fuel, and such fuel may be gas or oil, gasolene or other hydrocarbon as found most desirable for the particular purposes for use. I do not restrict myself in any regard as to the nature of the fuel which is to be controlled by the thermostatic device, nor do I restrict myself in requiring the thermostatic device to directly control such fuel, as the supply of fuel may be regulated under the control of the thermostatic device in any suitable manner desired.

The illustrations of apparatus given are only to be-talren by Way of example, and not as limitations of the invention, and the apparatus to which my improvements are applied would vary according to the special uses to which the heating medium is adapted.

No claims are made for the apparatus in this application as the same will form the subject matter of a divisional application.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is: V

l. The hereindescribed method of controlling the temperature of furnaces, which consists of supplying fuel to the furnace heating the contents of a unitary space thereby, collecting a plurality of separate currents of the heated contents previously brought to a heatedcondition by the furnace and providing thereby an average heated mixture therefrom, thermostatically controlling the supply of fuel to the furnace inversely in accordance with the variations in temperature of the average heated mixture, and varying the thermostatic action in controlling the supply of fuel by manual regulation to predetermine the normal average temperature to be maintained in the unitary space by the furnace.

2. The herein described method of controlling temperatures of a unitary heated chambered space, which consists in supplying fuel to the furnace, heating thereby the contents of the unitary space, collecting a plurality of currents of the heated contents from distant places in the unitary space and mixing them to provide an average heated mixture, regulating the supply of fuel to the furnace by a valve device, thermostatically controlling the operation of the valve device by a thermostatically operated means to regulate the supply of fuel, energizing the thermostatically operated means by varying temperatures of the average mixture, anddiverting a portion of the current of the average mixture away from the thermostatically operated means to retard the flow of the remaining portion of the current of said mixture in contact with said means.

3. The herein described method of controlling temperatures of a unitary heated chambered space, which consists in supply ing fuel to the furnace, heating thereby the contents of the unitary space, collecting a plurality of currents of the heated contents from distant places in the unitary space and mixing them to provide an average heated mixture, regulating the supply of fuel to the furnace by a valve device, thermostatically controlling the operation of the valve device by a thermostatically operated means to regulate the supply of fuel, energizing the thermostatically operated means by varying temperatures of the average mixture, diverting a portion of the cur rent of the average mixture away from the thermostatically operated means to retard the flow of the remaining portion of the current of said mixture in contact with said means, and manually adjusting the extent of the diverted portion of the current to predetermine the temperature to be provided and maintained by the furnace.

lln testimony of which invention, T hereunto set my hand.

. HARRY l3. GILBERT. Witnesses:

R. M. HUNTER, E. W. SMITH.